Thursday, June 30, 2005

Asia Times Online - US and India Strengthen Defense Ties

Just when I worry that nobody is at home, asleep at the wheel I get to read a story like this one. The United States and India have penned a ten year defense agreement. Indian Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Donald Rumsfeld signed the "New Framework for the US-India Defense Relationship" this week.This is important for a number of reasons. While there is only one superpower left in the world the rise of China means that the old alliances used to face off against the Soviet Union are no longer as valid or as useful. The alliance with Pakistan has always been an alliance of necessity and not of philosophy or similarities. A relationship with India would put the two countries that have more similarities than differences together in a natural alliance that should have always been. Additionally it would put pressure on Pakistan to behave better since they would see the US isn't on their side in any Pakistan/India conflicts. Pakistan will likely not find this agreement to their liking. It will be up to the US to keep Pakistan from flirting with China as an ally in the future.

India is the largest democracy in the world and as such should naturally align with the US. Instead, India had been a partner with Russia/Soviet Union. As regional power relationships go, India needs a balance against China, we need balance against China and so the meeting of common needs has finally started. The US will co-produce weaponry with India. Hopefully there will be technology security for some of the weaponry the US brings to the table. The US is conscious of how joint technology with Israel has found it's way to China and is therefore likely to want to mitigate that possibility. India for it's part will be happier with a joint technology situation since in the past the US has used it's military technology relationships as a weapon of diplomacy. In a joint technology situation that will not happen and so India will feel more secure in their own defense needs being met.

This could be the beginning of a bigger relationship between India and the United States. It will be interesting to see how hostile China will become with regards to this and the further US/India relationship. In three weeks the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh will visit the US.

Oh yeh. It's one of those things that many of us have known for many a year. For instance the fumes that come from a heated pan which is treated with Teflon is in fact a killer for pet birds. Birds have a more sensitive lung system than do humans and for that reason have been used as safety devices for man when the quality of the air was in question. Miners would take canaries down into the mines with them and when the birds stopped singing/making noise and dropped dead it was a good indication that humans would themselves be dropping dead soon. Thus warned the human miners would clammor out of the mines and be saved to die in a mine collapse or of black lung at a later date. But the point is that birds have been the early warning sign for humans in cases where the quality of the air is in question. All the pet bird literature states quite clearly that if you have pet birds then you don't have Teflon or Teflon variations in your house. It kills birds dead. Well, to my way of thinking, what's not good for birds is not good for me either. So no Teflon. Lo and behold there are now studies that show what I already know, what you could have already known if you perhaps had a pet bird and or were in contact with bird owners who already know this. So toss out that Teflon.

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Chinese woes old Kuomintang Leaders

Of note is this article which articulates the Chinese attempts at manipulating Taiwan. The PRC and Taiwan's Politics Nothing new here except for the documentation of the practice. Basically China is playing nice with the older out of power Kuomintang leaders who consider themselves to be Chinese and not Taiwanese. The Kuomintang were Chinese from the mainland who fought against Imperial Japan in World War II and were driven out of China in the power struggle that followed the defeat of Japan. By weakening the Taiwanese leadership they hope to gain Taiwan without resorting to an invasion. Carrots and sticks to try to gain their way. It's one of the many factors to keep an eye on to determine when and if there will be an invasion.

Thousands riot in China, attack police, burn cars

The violence was the latest in a series of protests which the Communist Party, in power since 1949, fears could spin out of control and become a channel for anger over corruption and a growing gap between rich and poor.

These sort of things seem to be happening more and more. Reading a history of China will get you the impression that most revolutions and upheavals have gotten their start in this fashion. More later.

Bo knows South America

Polish ex nun, world traveling hippie, South American visiting in time of unrest kind of person. I told her, don't go there, bad people, riots. So she goes there and gets nicely in the riots and meets bad people. But she survives and does bring back good pictures.

Bush's Live Speech - Text and Comments

I'm reading the text of the President's Speech last night. First off, looking at him he does look like he's ready to cry. His mouth is turned down and definitely looks in bad shape. Like someone trying to convince someone of something he doesn't even believe in himself.

"Iraw is the latest battlefield in this war. Many terrorists who kill innocent men, women and children on the streets of Baghdad are followers of the same murderous ideology that took the lives of our citizens in New York, in Washington and Pennsylvania."

Humm. Well Iraq was not home to these people before we invaded them. In fact Iraq was a fairly brutal dictatorship, not a theocracy as in Afghanistan. Saddam was actually an enemy to these types. Those being the types who would try to overthrow him. In fact, of all the nations in the area outside of Israel, Iraq was the one where you could not find terrorists or terrorist sympathizers. Terrorists and their supporters are still in Syria, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Egypt and those little Emerites all over the place. But not in Iraq - at least until we invaded them.

"We are removing a source of violence and instability and laying the foundation of peace for our children and our grandchildren."

Well, no actually. We have in fact created a source of violence and instability. We are increasing violence and the prospect of violence to our children and grandchildren. Now if we kill enough people, invade Syria and Iran and kill all of those people then maybe we'll stop the violence and instability. Right now, terrorists are streaming in from Syria and Iran and from Saudi Arabia, and Yemen and so forth.

"some of the violence you see in Iraq is being carried out by ruthless killers who are converging on Iraq to fight the advance of peace and freedom. Our military reports that we have killed or captured hundreds of foreign fighters in Iraq who have come from Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, Egypt, Sudan Yemen, Libya and others."

Exactly. One set of military reports that the President actually lets come out. The military reports that say 'we need more troops' or 'we need better armor' are ignored.

"Some wonder whether Iraq is a central front in the war on terror. Among the terrorists, there is no debate. Hear the words of Osama Bin Laden: "This Third World War is raging in Iraq. The whole world is watching this war." He says it will end in "victory and glory or misery and humiliation."

Well Iraq is the central part because we made it the central part. As such we have weakened our position in the war against terror and we have weakened our position with our allies and in the world generally. Also, it's funny that the President brought up Bin Laden who by the way is not in Iraq. As I recall Bin Laden was the actual enemy and was involved in the 9-11 attacks. He should be a focus of our efforts and he's not. Which is a mistake.

The only way our enemies can succeed is if we forget the lessons of September 11, if we abandon the Iraqi people to men like Zarqawi and if we yield the future of the Middle East to men like bin Laden.

Here the President is mixing two things. The 'lessons' of 9-11 and what would happen if we abandon Iraq now. Two different things entirely. The lessons of 9-11 include being more vigilant, having the various law enforcement authorities actually talk to each other, knowing who the enemy is and not letting terrorists have safe haven anywhere. Again, the only reason there are terrorists in Iraq is because we have invaded that country and given an opportunity for people in the Middle East who couldn't afford the plane ticket to the United States to walk across their own countries and pick up a gun and shoot americans. We created that problem ourselves. Now that we are there and now that we have created this mess we have to stay and finish the job. If we do pull out of Iraq we will be leaving the country to the mullahs and the Zarqawi's and in the end make the world more unstable.

"We continued our efforts to help them rebuild their country. Rebuilding a country after three decades of tyranny is hard and rebuilding while a country is at war is even harder. "

Rebuilding a country while it is at war is 'even harder'. No kidding. Well, you know, the country is at war because we can't stop the new terrorist fighters from coming across the Syrian border. We can't do that because we don't have enough troops on the ground to do that. We need more troops to accomplish the goal. The phony response to that is always, 'we let the Generals decide.' Well that is complete bullshit. Any General who says we need more troops finds himself on the short end of retirement. The political pressure to not request more troops is high. Generals don't become Generals because they are insensitive to Political pressures. They are Generals because they are political themselves. If they disagree with the policy as stated and pushed through by the Secretary of Defense they are not allowed to disagree publicly. If they feel actually strongly about being a party the deaths of american soldiers that are supposed to be under their care then they are free to retire and try to get someone to listen to them then.

"But our commanders tell me they have the number of troops they need to do their job. Sending more Americans would undermine our strategy of encouraging Iraqis to take the lead in this fight. And sending more Americans would suggest that we intend to stay forever, when we are in fact working for the day when Iraq can defend itself and we can leave."

At last a reason or two. First the lie though, 'our commanders tell me they have the numbers of troops they need to do their job.' - Really, you can't run around and say the sky is purple when we can see for ourselves with our own eyes that it is blue. When we don't have the troops to keep the streets safe and fighters from pouring across the Syrian border then we cannot say that we have enough troops to do the job. They aren't doing the job now, because there aren't enough troops. Really. That is self evident. And any General who says otherwise is lying and or incompetent or perhaps a political General.

"We have more work to do, and there will be tough moments that test AmericaÂs resolve. We are fighting against men with blind hatred and armed with lethal weapons who are capable of any atrocity. They wear no uniform; they respect no laws of warfare or morality."

Completely true. What kind of religious people scream like stuck pigs when someone mishandless' their holy book but say nothing at all when the people fighting in the name of that book torture and behead people? A complete lack of morality as anyone should understand morality. Their view of religion involves abuse of children,women and non muslims, cuts off free thought and thinking and has no tolerance of anybody else but yet they demand tolerance of their own brand of intolerance. We have a policy of supporting some of the countries that do this, that abuse human rights in these ways and as long as we do, there will be a endless supply of terrorists. We are doing nothing to actually win this fight. Nothing at all.

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Very interesting. Ability to post pictures here at Blogger. Well, in other news I stubbed my toe most terribly this morning. Not the big one but one of the small ones. Broke it I'm afraid. All black and ugly and very painful. That on one foot and the heel thing on the other foot and I can't walk to save my life right now. So if anyone was waiting for the proper moment to send Ninja assassins over to kill me, this would be the time. It'll be very dark out here. Don't worry about finding me in the dark though. I'll be sitting in one of the dark corners wearing my night vision goggles and slowly squeezing the trigger when you present a full target. Just like Audrey Hepburn in that movie where she was blind in her house and thugs were after her. Sort of like that but with night vision goggles and automatic weaponry.

Souter's Property - a possible victim of Eminent Domain

Freestar Media, which appears to be a political action organization, has released a news item about a developer who is seeking to have the home of David Souter, one of the five Justices on the Supreme Court who ruled against homeowners in the recent Kelo Supreme Court case, seized by the local government so that the land can be used to build a Hotel. It's to prove a point of course, with the Hotel to be called "The Lost Liberty Hotel" and which will feature an exibit about the lost liberties of Americans. All that is needed here is for three of the five people on it's board of Selectmen vote for it. Just like with you and I. It won't happen, but wouldn't it be great if it did?

China's People's Daily Online addresses the Gertz article after a fashion with this report. An important aspect of any possible conflict between China and the United States is consideration of the damage done to the economies not only of the United States and China but those of countries throughout the world. It's a gamblers game to be played when nations prepare for war and hope to outbluff or otherwise acquire their goals without war. A war would be a disaster to all involved but perhaps the Chinese believe that the United States would not fulfill their defense obligations in consideration of that economic damage. Certainly Japan made that calculation when they attacked the United States in Pearl Harbor.

International Assessment and Strategy Center > Research > China’s New Strategic Cruise Missiles: From the Land, Sea and Air

War with China is not far off. Bill Gertz lays the case out in the Washington Times, June 26 Edition. The link that leads this blog entry off provides an in depth look at part of the Chinese Military strategy and its Military buildup. The evidence is there and growing every day. The types of cruise missiles built and deployed may make your eyes glaze over but the complete and total picture shows a China that is expanding it's capabilities from that of a defensive nature to capabilities that include offensive possibilities. They are preparing for a world where they believe they can be successful in an attack on Taiwan despite the actions of the United States. That world also envisions being able to roll up Asia and the natural resources therein. Like every other war that has ever been fought, this one will be for territory and resources. The fact that the Chinese are amassing the means for that war in the same fashion as did Nazi Germany and Japan before World War II is a fact that passes as it did then, over the heads of those who falsely believe war is not rational or possible. The alarm bells are ringing and many simply will not listen.

I would worry if the Kelo decision didn't elicit the same sort of response I feel toward it. In that respect I'm not too worried. A great many people have taken notice of the decision and continue to write about it and with any luck at all the issue will be addressed. It cannot stand, not if property rights are to mean anything at all. Not if the Bill of Rights is to mean anything at all. Stephen Bainbridge, the author of this article has it right with these words. In light of the Supreme Court's decision to side with New London, we might just as well roll up the Takings Clause of the Bill of Rights, because we won't need it any longer.

Friday, June 24, 2005

boortz.com: Nealz Nuze June 24, 2005

Neal Boortz has railed against the abuse of Eminent Domain for some time now and the rest of the country is coming up to speed on the abuse through his opinions and his radio show. Boortz says "I told you so!"

HoustonChronicle.com - Freeport moves to seize 3 properties

HoustonChronicle.com - Freeport moves to seize 3 properties: "FREEPORT - With Thursday's Supreme Court decision, Freeport officials
instructed attorneys to begin preparing legal documents to seize three
pieces of waterfront property along the Old Brazos River from two
seafood companies for construction of an $8 million private boat marina."

There have been a number of things staying the hand of Israel with regard to when and if they will bomb Iran and it's nuclear facilities. One of those things was the possibility that Iran would elect a moderate leader who would actually find a way to compromise with the Europeans who have been attempting to negotiate Nuclear weapon technology away from Iran. That hope died today with the election of hardline leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today. The already slim chance of compromise fell to nothing today and any thought that a bombing by Israel would further radicalize the Iranian population and put a hardliner in power is now a moot point. A hardliner is now in power. Israel knows that Tehran isn't following it's nuclear path in order to wrestle economic concessions from the west but is following a pure nationalistic policy. Like P'yŏngyang, they reason correctly that having nuclear weapons immunizes them from an attack by America and provides them the ability to stand up to pressure from the US and the West over various conflicting policies which is reason enough to continue racing toward having nuclear weapons. Israel also knows that the equation for their survival will change with a nuclear and hostile Iran next door. They cannot hope that Iran will become unhostile to their existence but they can do something about the nuclear problem. And as I've mentioned a number of times, nuclear weapon technology is 60 years old and available to anyone with the money and inclination to work toward the weaponry. Indeed, for Iran the hard part of the nuclear equation is putting nuclear weapons on missiles since the missile technology and the miniaturization for the weaponry are the harder parts to accomplish.

So any military strike will also hit known missile fabrication and research facilities. It would also seem logical for them to attack any facilities with the scientists and researchers in them. They would be weighing the diplomatic furor over the military strikes themselves and the amplification of that furor with the death count elevated. The survival equation would say that the death of the scientists would do as much as the destruction of the facilities to push back the ability of Iran to produce the fuel and fabrication of their nuclear weaponry.

I've read reports that the United States has in it's fashion accepted the inevitable prospect of Iran becoming a nuclear power. Last I heard the United States gave fairly clear indications to Israel that it wouldn't object too loudly if the problem was addressed militarily and now I don't know if that unspoken policy has changed. Regardless, with the election of the Iranian hardliner you can be assured that the military planners in Israel are updating and reevaluating their plans for an attack inside of Iran.

The other alternative for Israel is to seek a way to live with a nuclear Iran. They would acknowledge their own considerable nuclear arsenal and announce a mutual assured destruction strategy with their neighbors. Any attack by anyone would be considered an attack by all and would be responded too with a strike large enough to also obliterate the enemies. For Israel to do this they would have to believe in their neighbors acting like responsible rational nations. This would be a leap of faith that they would likely not be able to make. Israel is after all small enough that a 'first strike' would be the end of Israel. Nuclear weapon capable enemies have only to provide the very terrorists that they support with a bomb or two to sneak into Israel and that would be it. The terrorists after all constantly display their disregard for life and a zeal when it comes to suicide bombing. The history of the Jews is one of fighting against the odds and in the face of overwhelming odds against them so they are not afraid of a fight. They are also not apt to stand there and do nothing. Look for the attack in the next six months - depending on the so called negotiations between Iran and the Europeans.

Justices Rule Cities Can Take Property for Private Development - New York Times

A reinstall of the 'JustBlogIt' software that caused me to sign up to Blogger in the first place. Well, this story is one that I've noticed to have just been discovered by a number of sites. The case, an eminent domain case in front of the Supreme Court has been decided in the favor of business and government as opposed to the basic home owner .Over at Fox News it barely makes a side link. The story of the missing girl in Aruba, while tragic, is not of the same importance but to Fox it trumps the rights of homeowners. The right wing blog LGF has no mention of it, the left wing blog KOS, makes no mention of it. It's interesting to see who finds this taking away of property rights newsworthy and who doesn't. As interesting as seeing that the rights of citizens, of property owners is more valued and was voted for by the 'right wing' Justices while it was the 'left wingers' who voted to send your property rights down the river to business and local governments. Just another step toward the business ruled world as seen in various distopian novels or various goose stepping dictatorships.

The Forgiving Nature of Blogging

I signed up for this service some time ago and used the happy little Firefox extension in order to access the blog at a second's notice. Umm, since that time I had the major crash of doom here. I think I stupidly opened up an email from the randomly generated fake name since the name sounded familiar to me. So that was lots of fun and the end result was that I had lost the Firefox extension and a few other things. Didn't reinstall it when I did the complete reinstall and well you know, one day follows another day and then it's months later. And so there you have it. The waxing and waning of the desire to write always leaves me with too much energy or not enough. Right now I'm trying to understand CSS enough to do the annual redesign of my website at www.gadlaw.com. On particularly inspiring and wonderous site is the css Zen Garden which provides me with all sorts of gnashing envy and impetous to do something as wonderful. Oh yes, never open email from johanna. It's probably not from her and it's likely a virus. In similar news, never send money to Nigerian government officials who only need your checking account number in order to send you large piles of money. Indeed.